a symphony of experiences (post-blog 2.11-2.18; symphony of the seas)

[asquared17]

** i feel i should slap a warning on this that i am fairly verbose and will be giving you all a novel to consume maybe crack a cold one and settle in for a bit... **

 

details: we had initially booked allure in december of 2020 — but we all know how THAT turned out when cruising started back up again, we landed on this fare and sailing, grabbed a junior suite at a price that was a little higher than we were ultimately comfortable with (which looks/sounds silly, now looking at prices) and hoped for the best. this was meant to be our first foray back to sailing in a post-covid world. unbeknownst to us at the time of booking, we would sneak away on odyssey in december for a steal -- ultimately our return to cruising -- but this was more our speed.

cabin: JS 11232 / JS 10636 (*more on this later)

extras: nothing crazy planned for us, as we are pretty mellow cruisers. we thought we would pick up a specialty dinner on board if one of the restaurants spoke to us, and had plans to see the hiRo aqua show and hairspray. we also had booked an excursion for maya chan beach club on our stop in costa maya. otherwise, we were footloose and fancy free!

 

day 1

we got to the port around 10:20-10:25 and immediately walked over to the suites check-in as we were fortunate enough to have booked a JS for this sailing. surprisingly, they hadn’t let anyone aboard yet, and the suites holding area was relatively full. within five minutes of checking in though, we were cleared to go aboard.

first impressions; the ship is STUNNING. we are excited to be back on an oasis-class ship and grateful for the neighborhoods, as they do a wonderful job of dispersing the crowds. (other than the odd moment after shows broke/disembarkation, we never once felt crowded aboard.)

we immediately traversed the promenade to head up to deck 17 to make dinner reservations in CK and lucked out with our desired time of 5:30 (especially on the first night, when we are always so zonked.) then we headed back to our cabin to find our luggage was already delivered! we commenced unpacking and getting organized. our stateroom attendant, hilario, introduced himself with a warm smile and calm manner. (we LOVED hilario and were sad to leave him  - again, more on that later)

i had not been feeling well the day before and was still more than a little out of it, so for the first time in years, sadly did NOT complete my cruise kickoff ritual of a red stripe from the schooner bar. happily, we diverted to vintages, where we got sailaway/cruise kickoff champagne and headed back to our room to depart.

pretty soon it was time for our dinner in CK, and we were assigned to the BEST server, his name was nay. he was PHENOMENAL. 15/10 would recommend him!! so personable, warm and attentive. i ordered the caesar salad and they modified a pasta dish for me (since i usually steer clear of red meat) and jordan, my travel buddy, had the filet. she said it was EXCELLENT.

we made it back to our room and tried to get an early night's sleep in. little did we know, sleep would prove to be elusive.... and that would be a running theme for the next few nights. (again, more on that later -- are you sensing a theme here?? )

interior of cabin 11232 - note the bed is set up near the bathroom, not the windows. i do prefer it closer to the windows but the room was well appointed and we liked the muted/calm decor.

i did think the bathroom/shower setup was interesting since there's no..... closure to the back half of the shower. made for an interesting experience...

my favorite tuna fish sandwich from park cafe!! a much-needed lunch, well flavored and delicious.

a friend found in the garden in central park, forward.

aqua theater before the crowds or shows filled in the spaces

our delightfully large closet!

our ducks! we were able to explain the cruising ducks phenomenon to many families and new cruisers while on board, and seemed to kick off the duck-hunting trend for many young sailors!

the beloved pretzel roll! this is an inside family joke but clearly worthy of its own picture, haha

delicious caesar salad in CK on night one!

[Ampurp85]

Symphony is the last of the Oasis class ships I need to sail. I am glad she is a beauty. Since there are two cabin numbers, I sense some shenanigans. I am on the edge of my seat.

[asquared17]

10 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

Symphony is the last of the Oasis class ships I need to sail. I am glad she is a beauty. Since there are two cabin numbers, I sense some shenanigans. I am on the edge of my seat.

you will love her there are indeed shenanigans!! in fact, a few times i was thinking of you specifically and going, how would she fare with this right now? probably more patient than i did

[asquared17]

DAY TWO

 

we. did. not. sleep. at. all.

between our neighbors on ALL sides — directly across, and on the right and left of us, AND the constant stream of people shouting as they made their way down the hallway, it felt like we were at a rave. i was up every hour on the hour until 5am, where i just laid there and thought about how best to tackle this situation.
we are not new to cruising, nor am i new to RCCL, but we have NEVER experienced volume like this before. it was unprecedentedly bad. it felt like we were on a frat/sorority deck with people just in an out of each others’ rooms, shouting and yelling loudly, kids screaming down the hallway with parents cheering them on and telling them to go faster. maybe it was a lot of new cruisers, who did not know how well sound travels? unsure. but it was unreal.

we also knew there was a family across from us who had five CP balcony cabins and witnessed them asking for all the balconies to be unlocked, so we kind of knew that things might get a little loud, but had no idea just how insane it was going to get. (the way they all stood on the hallway gathered outside the doors screaming loudly, instead of going inside, over the next few nights was legit wild.)

additionally, there was a BOATLOAD (no pun intended) of interior cabin noise. tons of creaking from what seemed like the walls, closet and bathroom. the ship is relatively new still, so this was completely unexpected. i had already known to wedge the hangers in so that they did not move — and ironically, they were the only things that DIDN’T make noise in the cabin — but there was a ton of noise as we sailed through the night.

if it had JUST been interior noise, i think we could have handled it. but between the exterior noise and the interior noise, there was legitimately no sleep to be had. we were both complete zombies.

i scrambled out of bed around 5:30am, got dressed in workout clothes and headed down to guest services for our first attempt to get the noise issue handled. thankfully, there was only one other person in front of me, and i was able to calmly and peacefully explain how bad things had been last night. to her credit, the guest services rep was very kind and did inquire if we had called security or reported it in the moment — i explained that we knew this was everyone’s vacation and thought it was just first night excitement/hoped it would dissipate by the time we would have gotten connected to the appropriate person to report it. she took a detailed report, encouraged me to report it in the moment again, if it should continue, and that she would be in touch if anything else came up. i asked if there was any possibility of switching rooms, but she said that the night shift was about to turn over and the best they might be able to offer would be another cabin to sleep in at night, at a lesser category, as there were no other JS cabins available.

after i thanked her for her listening and detailed reporting, i attempted to make my way to the walking track. the ship movement was so pronounced/rough that walking outside was virtually impossible. i got halfway around, feeling like i was in some kind of squall and then when i looped back to hit the forward part of the ship near the spa, i had to duck into the doors again at the promenade and literally almost BLEW AWAY. somehow i staggered my way back to the back of the ship where the movement was slightly (every so slightly) reduced and tried to take stake of my options. by this point, i stood against the voom desk (still on deck five) and just stared at the rattling chandeliers (that's how bad the noise/movement was). it was beginning to feel like hurricane season.

made my way back to the cabin, woke up my friend, and we staggered our way to johnny rockets for breakfast.

i should note here that the staff at JR was exceptionally kind and attentive (a GOOD trend, that we noticed among all the crew aboard, and were delighted to see). we thanked them profusely for breakfast, though i think they were semi-alarmed that we barely made our way through the small breakfast ordered and we headed to change and get up to the pool deck, hoping the sun would cure our lack of sleep.

the pool deck (on 16) was not entirely what we had hoped/the wind was pretty bad and we were soooooo tired. we diverted to the solarium and lucked out getting seats on deck 15, after which we staked out and then headed for a quick bite from park cafe. another tuna sandwich (they are tuna melts but i never got them melted) for me, while i longed for a bag of chips, and some egg salad for my friend, which she said was very good. we trekked back to the solarium and we spent the rest of the afternoon there before heading back to the room to change and get dressed for dinner with nay at CK.

dinner at CK was delicious, of course! we had the maine lobster appetizer, and some lovely pasta. the night before, i also had gotten the fabled chicken noodle soup that @Lovetocruise2002 had turned us on to after one of her more recent sailings, and it was delicious!!

we end our out and about portion of the evening with our first kickoff in central park, listening to the live guitar music and playing uno. this later became our post-dinner tradition, and it was lovely. so peaceful in CP, lots of seating to choose from, and a nice breeze to keep us comfortable. the guitar player goes through a great range of tunes and we are lulled into a peaceful time. i cannot state enough how nice this entire aspect of the trip is, and it becomes a highlight of the week. central park is my favorite neighborhood and the greenery is so lush and beautiful. such a gorgeous, tranquil place.

however.... we were soon to return to a not so tranquil place... also known as deck eleven, port side, where our cabin was located.

security calls at one point and says they are sending a team up since we have to call AGAIN for the noise. two very nice and empathetic officers come up in uniform, outfitted in body cams, while i explain the situation again. of course, by the time they come back up, the loud CP balcony family has dispersed, and we were asked to provide cabin numbers for the noise makers. in my pajamas, calling on every shred of patience i have, i explain to the two officers the situation and point to where the noise had come from. because i had opened the door and just stared at the CP family, hoping they would get a single hint of a clue (spoiler alert: they did NOT) about how loud they were being, i knew where they were located and also told security that i was very close to speaking with them myself. they urged me to call them instead to diffuse the situation rather than taking matters into my own hands and promised they would watch the security footage to see what had happened.

i also told them of the children we witnessed shrieking down the corridor and the parents who were either cheering them on, or just blissfully unaware of how the sound was carrying. (again, we recognized that it is EVERYONE'S vacation; we don't want to be THOSE PEOPLE, but it is late at night and we just. want. to. sleep.)

this is also the part of the story that i had left out on day one, which is necessary for context: our neighbors to the one side of us leaned WAY over into our space on day one and stood there for a while, saying "hello neighbors," in a very.... uncomfortable manner. we are two women traveling and they were two dudes traveling so i got the sense that they wanted to strike up a long conversation, but after repeated attempts where we did not engage -- and hearing the one friend say to the other 'dude they shot you WAY DOWN' over and over -- we just wanted some peace. the reason this is relevant is because they would, like clockwork, come back at 2 in the morning (after most of the bars shut down maybe??) and shake the earth with they way they would carry on.

because we are so completely exhausted, we somehow we get marginally more sleep but the noise is still not great.

 

this was the rattling and shaking in the common areas (note the chandeliers overhead) on deck 5, near the elevator bank.

froyo at last!

the BEST appetizer in CK; main lobster, some kind of vanilla butter puree and hearts of palm

the pasta tagliatelle that they modified for me (DELICIOUS)

our sanctuary in the solarium

my hand (i forget if i won this round or not)

folks walking around CP looking up to the night sky

elevator art installations!

central park uno ritual...

[asquared17]

also sorry for the post and edit - i have to get the recap in first and then i go back and add media off my phone after it's been uploaded, so bear with me and the order of things

[Lovetocruise2002]

1 hour ago, asquared17 said:

i also had gotten the fabled chicken noodle soup that @Lovetocruise2002 had turned us on to after one of her more recent sailings, and it was delicious!!

I am glad that you liked it! My kids are still talking about it lol

[Ampurp85]

Ugh! I feel so bad, and the shenanigans are worse than I thought. A large family with no concept that others are trying to enjoy their cruise as well......plus two bros who think they always need to shoot their shot. 

The sheer number of new cruisers seem not to grasp how thin the walls between cabins are.........or that the hallways are shared spaces. 

 

[SweetPea]

Hooked now! I'm sure you know Security well by now and can't wait to hear the rest!

 

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm also not unenjoying your pics from Sy, but juicy deets win every time!

[asquared17]

46 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

Ugh! I feel so bad, and the shenanigans are worse than I thought. A large family with no concept that others are trying to enjoy their cruise as well......plus two bros who think they always need to shoot their shot. 

The sheer number of new cruisers seem not to grasp how thin the walls between cabins are.........or that the hallways are shared spaces. 

 

we haven't even tackled the worst of the neighbors yet (aka the OTHER side of our wall) but yeah... it was painful. i don't know if we've just been super fortunate or what -- there's always a degree of ambient noise in the halls but it's NEVER been this bad before. it was wild style.

35 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

Hooked now! I'm sure you know Security well by now and can't wait to hear the rest!

 

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm also not unenjoying your pics from Sy, but juicy deets win every time!

it's funny you mention hooked, as that was the specialty restaurant we were most excited to try!!

the security team were our saviors many nights and even on the nights when we didn't see them (update in the works now for day three), they really were the best.

[asquared17]

DAY 3

right before trying to go to bed the night prior (key word being TRYING) this conversation unfolded:

my travel buddy/J: where are we tomorrow?
me: roatan
J: cool, what do we do there?
me: nothing; roatan is miz.
J: uh oh
me: [attempting to rephrase as any attempts at diplomacy have flown the coop with my lack of sleep at this point] it’s beautiful but every time i’ve ever been there, it’s rained or been a literal armpit of humidity.
also me: so we stay on the ship and hope for the best, friend

sure enough, we woke up and it was overcast and rainy looking.

i ran down to cafe promenade to acquire an empty cup, as they are the perfect size, so that i could concoct my cold brew, in the hopes that it would wake me up. because i am slightly high maintenance when it comes to my coffee, i never travel without my rook new orleans cold brew from home. i have tried other coffees, and cold brews and they can't really touch the caffeine levels that our local roastery provides. i realize that this is more than a little bougie, and that i am entirely too reliant on my coffee, AND that it adds weight to my already overflowing suitcase -- but alas. i am in a deeply committed relationship with my new orleans blend and the times i have cheated on it (read: did not pack and had to drink other cold brew) did not end well for me. withdrawal headache, brain fog, the works. i have problems. i know this.

prior to leaving miami, i had made a publix order to get some unsweetened shelf stable almond milk (again, trying to save my "going down" weight limit in the suitcase) so with that and the cold brew concentrate, i can make the coffee as strong or medium as i prefer. the cups at cafe promenade are exactly the right size and they are easily accessible, so it was a happy discovery to make on this day.

i was so exhausted that i must have slept like a rock but my travel buddy said the noise was endless again last night and the 2am bros came in at 2am and did their usual loud song and dance. (thankfully, i was passed out and missed this.) we were also told that security had spoken to all our neighbors to inform them that they needed to be more aware of their volume, so i was truly hoping for the best. (ah, if only i could go back to past me and tell her differently....)

in any case! on my way back from cafe promenade, i ran into a bedraggled couple in the elevator who were dripping profusely from their ponchos. typically i do not engage in elevator conversation beyond general greetings, unless i am feeling motivated, or the other party seems lost, and it's not some ungodly hour of the morning. however, my brief greeting launched a gateway of conversation for this couple -- they were quite chapped because they'd hurried up to get ashore for their excursion, only to find out that it had been cancelled due to the poor weather. i politely inquired if they had been issued refunds (because to my mind, this would have been the most pressing concern), and they told me that they had -- but they didn't feel the weather warranted the cancellation.

well friends, let me just cut to the chase and tell you that the weather never did clear up in roatan, and in fact, only proceeded to downpour WORSE as the day went on. so i think perhaps the excursion cancellation was likely for the best; although i can understand their frustration and disappointment.

this morning, we bypassed johnny rockets to get some yogurt and fruit delivered by room service, and i proposed that we hang in dazzles on deck 9, because of the view overlooking the boardwalk. this way, we'd be able keep an eye on the weather and the beautiful natural light that could stream in would hopefully offset the fact that we were still very much indoors.

despite the fact that the weather stubbornly refused to shift, we had a really lovely time in dazzles! i read about two or three books, and we were able to grab lunch (my travel buddy grabbed food from the jammer, and i got my beloved tuna (un)melt sandwich from park cafe) and have a cozy day indoors. as much as i missed being in the sun and wished we could have been on the pool deck with an ice cold corona and some sunbum sunscreen wafting in the air, we truly were happy to have a cozy day indoors. dazzles was blessedly quiet, and aside from the odd person coming in to play the piano every once in a while, we were undisturbed. we saw a few other folks there who had a similar idea -- reading, talking quietly, just enjoying a calm public space on the ship -- but everyone was respectful of the tranquil vibe and it was just a lovely day, all things considered. i was not disappointed to have the chill vibes in the LEAST, especially as sleep had been so touch and go.

before lunch, we started kicking around the idea of potentially going to a specialty restaurant for dinner, as we were largely underwhelmed by the menu in CK and also, i had called and they only could offer an 8pm reservation -- which, again, would have been a stretch for us even if we HAD been sleeping. travel buddy seemed intrigued by the idea of hooked (i had pitched it to her prior to our departure) and i wanted to get up and stretch my legs a bit, so i volunteered to trek up to the forward part of the ship so that i could speak to someone about making a reservation.

(we had tried to book through the app, as there was a 5:30 slot open, but because we had reservations for the hiro aqua show at 7:30, the app would not let us override to complete it online.)

it was about this point that i didn't realize how much i had come to rely on central park benefiting from good weather as i used it often to cross from the back to the front of the ship; didn't want to go on deck 5 because the promenade was sure to be busy with most folks shopping around and staying indoors, and decks 15/16 would have put me right into the elements. i chose to cross on 14 and take the lift up. hooked was just as pretty inside as it had been when we'd briefly wandered through on our first day. i checked the menu again outside and thought, yeah. we can totally do this.

when i arrived, there was only a friendly gal bussing tables and setting up. she explained that her manager was away from the desk but would be clocking in around 12 to assist with reservations, etc. i wasn't super keen on having to walk back, and she was incredibly helpful, offering to take down our information and have the reservation made on our behalf. she promised that it would be fine and we would only receive a call if we couldn't get in at the desired time.  this seemed much too good to be true, but i was grateful for the assist, and her kindness was truly appreciated.

it turned out that our gal (whose name escapes me) was able to work her magic and we did have the reservation for 5:30 as planned!

around 3pm, i was craving a little something sweet, and had an intense longing for the campfire cookie from playmakers. we had tried to get it while on odyssey in december, but it didn't quite work out for us at the time. i wanted to take it to go (which proved to be harder than it sounds, given the fact that it's baked in an actual ramekin and comes with a milk 'shooter') but the staff at playmakers was EXCELLENT and made it happen!! i brought it back with me to dazzles and managed to eat about half before succumbing to a sugar coma. (pics to follow below, of the campfire cookie and not my sugar coma )

pretty soon it was time for dinner, and we get ready to go over to hooked. the weather is still poor but we are going to kick off sailaway soon, and my only hope is that the seas are not too rough while we are at dinner, as we will be forward in the ship, and that is where i tend to feel the most motion. at this point, we are still unsure if the aqua show will go on, but decide to make the best of it, and soldier on.

we are seated at a lovely window table when we arrive at hooked and have an AWESOME server. she is incredibly friendly, patient and has great info for us about the menu. she tells us how happy she is to be aboard symphony and that she was thankfully a the end of her contract just before covid hit, so she was home for the stretch of it, unlike friends of hers who were on a 'dead sailing' for months. (i am pretty sure that is what the crew told us a 'no passengers' sailing was called while on odyssey.) we dive into the cheesy biscuits (both agreeing that they remind us of red lobster in a good way), place our order, and await a culinary delight.

travel buddy gets the mussels appetizer and happily devours -- i get the jumbo shrimp cocktail and am stunned at how fresh and big the shrimp are. as i am taking pics with my phone, fellow diners at the table across from us ask if it would be okay to also snap a pic or two and send to their family, as they know they would love it too. like any self respecting italian worth their salt, with an intense desire to see people well fed and watered, i wave her over and have her take as many pictures as needed. we briefly discuss that we both ordered the lobster and are now starting to get a little nervous about what could potentially await us.

.... famous last words.

travel buddy and i enjoy seafood. we live in a section of NJ that allows us ample opportunity to have fresh seafood pretty much whenever we want, and my parents always made sure we could enjoy lobsters once or twice a summer (whenever they went on sale at shop rite!) so that i am not a total novice when it comes to field dressing a lobster to get the meat out. (i am not sure if field dressing applies to a non-hunting setting, but it felt appropriate for this discussion ) my point to this being, we are not total newbs when it comes to lobsters.

and then our 2lb lobster was brought out and delivered to us and i.... was instantly overwhelmed. the sheer SIZE of this BEAST was... equal parts awe inspiring and terrifying. travel buddy falls into the camp of eating while you go along, whereas i fall into the camp of doing all the work upfront and then doubling back to enjoy the fruits of your labor at the end.

if i had a single complaint to utter at hooked it would only be that the tools they gave us to divest our lobsters of meat were not very effective. the long pick tool was a bit wider than i am used to (at home we have literal picks that could probably take out someone's carotid in a heartbeat.... come to think of it, perhaps this is why they don't even sell this tool anymore...) and crackers that are easy to handle. the cracker tools we were given at hooked transferred gray metal stains to our hands and didn't grip super well.

i fought with my one lobster claw AND THE CLAW WON -- it took a slice out of my thumb but i thankfully lived to tell the tale.

after reaching a near fever pitch of lobster harvesting, i realize that i am going to have to stop or else be rolled away from the table. in both shame and defeat, i am forced to acknowledge that the lobster has won this battle and i leave some of the spoils of my (short lived) victory behind.

but i had to save room for dessert, after all! we had gotten the lemon tart, and it did not disappoint!!!

somehow we managed to soak up the entire two hour dining time -- we are notoriously fast dinners, usually completing service within 45-60 minutes typically) and we raced to the back of the ship for the aqua show, which was, in fact, going to happen!!!

i tend to get a little ~weird (it's a scientific term that we use when feeling lightheaded, a touch of anxiety, heatstoke, blood sugar dropping, etc) when in large crowds, and am a BIG fan of personal space -- we didn't necessarily want to sit on wet seats, either. so we took the stairs below the rock climbing walls up to deck 7 and watched the aqua show from the balcony there, which was a perfect spot for us! it wasn't too crowded and we could see most of the production and staging in a way that we wouldn't have if we'd be seated in the aqua theater proper.

i always enjoy the aqua show from a production standpoint, because what they do is nothing short of amazing, every single time. while certain elements are repeated throughout the shows (which you recognize when you have seen more than one), it is always enjoyable, and always awesome to see the way the performers can move and dance and DIVE. just really, really cool. hands down, i think any aqua show is always my favorite entertainment aboard the ship.

i did like the 80s show on oasis best -- mostly for the music -- but hiro was very well done and i appreciated the elements of diversity that they wove throughout the show. kudos to RCCL for making this one. can't say enough nice things about it.

we didn't want to get caught in the mass exodus sea of humanity, so we ducked out a minute or two before the show ended and headed back to our room, in search of some desperately needed sleep.

again.... famous... last... words.

the usual noise carries on well through the 8-9:45 period of time and then our OTHER next door neighbors (not the frat boys) come back and they are, without a doubt, the ABSOLUTE WORST.

they started carrying on around 10:15 and the sound level is UNREAL. we keep waiting for a pocket of time when it will end and it just never ever does. time passes and i realize that it is now 11:30 at night and there is no end in sight. i call down to guest services and have finally lost my patience; it's been three nights of nothing but noise and this is absolutely unacceptable. i recognize that it is not guest services' fault but this HAS TO STOP. we cannot keep going on like this. they ask me for the number of the cabin where the noise is coming and i unflinchingly rattle off 11236, and they promise to send security up.

to their credit, security comes up within minutes. they have to POUND on the door (the noise was THAT bad) T H R E E times before anyone answers the door and they must have ordered them to cease and desist IMMEDIATELY, because the sound level goes down drastically after that. 

eventually, we do sleep but the the writing is on the wall and we are by now, truly dreading the rest of the cruise.

(ps: travel buddy tells me the following morning that the frat boys come back around 2am again and shake the earth but i am dead asleep and thankfully do not wake up.)

standby for pics!!

[asquared17]

best stairwell art in the entire ship (in my opinion) on deck 6

our quiet peaceful time in dazzles

our ducks! (and the tags that i custom made)

the fabled campfire cookie, at long last!!

the inside of the campfire cookie

hooked menu!

enormous shrimp cocktail

the beast and i make first contact.

the wreckage

the left behind treasure

 

the beast staring me in the eye, as it knows that i'm slowly losing the battle....

i fought the claw and the claw won

our delicious lemon tart dessert!!

hiro (aqua show)

my (not so small hand) in comparison to the sheer HULK size claw on my plate. i was woefully outmatched.

i admit defeat.

[Ampurp85]

I don't eat anything but shrimp when it comes to seafood. But I did Hooked on Navigator and that shrimp cocktail was always the best version of it, even over Chops and it's my go-to app there. My table mates got the 2lb lobster and had a time getting all the meat out as well, so kudos.

Also I am jelly, I have yet to have a complete Campfire dessert from Playmakers. I also have to tell my brother about the tuna sandwich because he loves tuna melts and tuna sandwiches.........well tuna in general. 

I am sorry, it sounds like this is your least relaxing cruise. 

 

[asquared17]

DAY 4

 

though our morning started off with a distinct lack of sleep, it should be noted that this is the fixed point where our trip takes a TURN. (spoiler alert: for the BETTER!!!)

today we arrived in costa maya, which included our one and only excursion to the maya chan beach club. i had scoured the forums for recommendations and came to the conclusion that maya chan would tick all the boxes for us. we had received several communications from mark, who was very up front about the itinerary change (we swapped days for roatan and costa maya) as well as instructions for navigating the port with maximum efficiency.

we got ourselves together once again and staggered down to johnny rockets for breakfast. once again, the staff was so nice and helpful. we were a bit delirious but we tried to put down enough food to hold us over until lunch at maya chan. while it took longer than usual to get our food, we did what we could and finished up in no time.

my only request to J (travel buddy), was that we stop at guest services before we get off the ship for the day. the line at guest services wasn’t too terrible, but there was a man loudly proclaiming that if they did not fix this (we were unsure what “this” was, exactly, as it seemed his story changed several times over the span of a few minutes), that he would live stream his experience and tell every single passenger aboard how UNhelpful the staff was.

i have to pause here to say a few things; i work in customer service and have worked in retail before that for some time. there is knowing how to work the system and also how to TREAT FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS. i understand that things happen and we get frustrated. we’re human. people are imperfect. it HAPPENS. but you’ve got to push me pretty damn far to go nuclear and it was clear that this man was clearly blustering just to get his way. i felt very bad for the staff called up to interact with him. they handled it with as much grace as they could have, and should be commended.

okay back to our regularly scheduled programming — er, lack of sleep for three days.

we are greeted by jose, a guest services officer with many impressive bars/insignia on his uniform. (not going to lie, i was incredibly encouraged by this.) we bring him up to speed on the latest shenanigans and how we have not slept in several days. i tell him about the safety concerns of our frat boy neighbors on top of it, and even let him know that just a week prior to sailing, my uncle had died unexpectedly. (that is an entirely different story for another day.)

the bottom line, to my man jose, is that we really really REALLY want to sleep. and while we understand that the ship is limited in what they can do to “police” guest behavior, we are really hoping there is a better option to pursue at this time.

jose listens attentively, takes detailed notes on everything, and asks us to wait a few minutes while he confers with his manager in the back. we of course agree, and watch the circus unfolding two desks down AKA the man threatening to livestream his experience. i kind of wished i had popcorn at this point because it was truly a sight to behold.

anyway — jose comes back and he’s great. he keeps it super real and basically agrees that our entire experience has been bull$hit (in much more diplomatic terms, of course.) at this point, i was ready to cheer for the sheer acknowledgment of it all. jose asks what our plans are for the day — we tell him we have a shore excursion that would put us back on the ship around 4ish or so. he requests that we come immediately back to guest services as soon as we come aboard as he will have some next steps for us by then. evidently there are guests who were supposed to join our sailing and missed stops in miami and roatan. if they cannot get aboard today… well, i’ll let you fill in the blanks.

we thank jose for his candor, and leave the ship in slightly better spirits as we depart into the maze that is the costa maya port.  
 
i haven’t been to costa maya in years — i had vague memories of what it was like, and we were armed with two maps from the maya chan team to help us navigate it. we weren’t entirely sure how far we’d need to walk beyond that, so there was a fair amount of trepidation (did i mention i am type A/kind of a control freak? — you guys probably have gathered that by now ) in what shape and form this journey would ultimately take.

there was one hairy moment when we felt trapped in the thick of it all, and a vendor asked, “where do you want to go?” and i just looked at him and said, “OUT.”
(thankfully, he helped us get to “out”.)

we walked however much farther it was to the assigned hut where the maya chan staff was. walking past the government military with semi automatic guns in their arms was a bit of a wake up call; obviously we mind our p’s and q’s, so it wasn’t for fear that we would do anything to offend or cause suspicion — just that eerie feeling of ‘hey toto, we’re not in kansas anymore.’

the transportation to maya chan was easily the the thing i feared the most. i get moderately bad motion sickness and am prone to getting ~weird (that fun “science” term to encompass a litany of feelings/symptoms) especially when other people are driving, so this was going to be a HUGE leap of faith for me.

i had armed myself with gum, a disposable ice pack, noise cancelling airpods + soothing ocean tunes, to try and tell my brain that everything would be fine, and the maya chan rep was extremely accommodating when i inquired if it would be possible to sit in the row behind the driver.

she had us all loaded up in no time and said it would be about a 15-20 minute ride to the beach club.

(spoiler alert: it was NOT 15-20 minutes)

the first 15-20 minutes were us just driving through town in an increasingly slower pace. it was morning, the town was alive, and people were milling around. i am also human enough to admit that there is that feeling of not knowing where you’re going the first time and it seems to take FOREVER — and there was definitely some of that going on.

my icepack was good for about 20 minutes and then we hit the dirt road portion of the drive. (in hindsight, i wished i had kept it for that part of the ride, but i had only packed 2 ice packs and wanted to save it for the ride back.) thus ensued another 15 minutes of encountering potholes the size of galapagos turtles and me telling my brain to think that i was on a horseback ride.

thankfully we made it there in one piece (and the pot hole section was not uniformly terrible; just really REALLY bad in certain pockets) and finally made it to maya chan.

the staff was AMAZING. they are SO incredibly hospitable and welcoming; they take pride in their beach club and they SHOULD!!! everyone worked so hard and was always making sure we had everything we needed to feel good and have a wonderful day at maya chan. i cannot overstate how amazing they were. truly truly worth it, just for the people there!!

as an example, J left her blue towel from the ship behind at the waiting hut and they gave her a spare to have in the mean time — and then someone retrieved it for her and swapped it out properly so that she wouldn’t get whacked with the $25 towel fee!!

we were immediately given welcome guac and chips and salsa when we were taken to our reserved space for the day and it was DELICIOUS.

i had been kicking around the idea of getting a massage — the coordinator came around and told us it would be $45 for a full body/just about an hour long. after every muscle in my body had been in a full body clench from the drive and the past few days of being on Team No Sleep, i signed up immediately.

BEST. DECISION. EVER.

the massage was GREAT.

i staggered away like a drunken sailor back to our chairs to grab money to pay and tip well in my thanks. it was the perfect start to our day.

we were told when lunch was ready and took turns going to get a plate arranged. the bathrooms were clean and there was a nice freshwater shower right outside. while i didn’t go into the water past my waist, there was a lot to do if you were so inclined; paddle boarding, floats, kayaking, etc., and staff to help you get set up, if desired.

lunch was PHENOMENAL. (pics to follow) i also got the drink of the day - a spicy paloma, and it was delightful.

had we more sleep under our belt/were i not so worried about potentially tossing my cookies on the way back with the ride, i probably would have taken more advantage of the inclusive beverages and house tequila, etc. J and i joked that they MADE money on us because we only had one drink between us.

it wasn’t long before we had to get back on the 3pm transport back to the pier and begin the arduous ride back to the ship.

we were the only sober ones in our transport, and it was rapidly apparent that everyone had had a GREAT TIME at maya chan including the two guests who took roadies with them. one of those guests sat next to me and instead of facing front, man spread into my space for the entire ride back — no joke, his knees were jabbing into my hip and leg the entire time (as i faced forward, and he was perpendicular to the road) as he loudly regaled all with his knowledge of learning why the logo for RCCL was a crown and anchor.

i had horrifying visions of wearing his blue open beverage but he somehow managed to down it and then pass out cold for a blessed seven minutes — after which he rallied, and began shouting loudly again.

we finally made it back to the pier and onto the ship and immediately headed for guest services.

jose was otherwise occupied, but we explained the issue to the guest services representative who was helping us and he informed us that there was a replacement junior suite available to us, cabin 10636, if we would like to take it. J was on the fence about moving but i looked at her and said, “there is no legitimate way that it can be WORSE than what we are currently experiencing. we have to do this.”

he kindly arranged for us to take a look at the cabin before we made the decision to move and keyed it so that my sea pass would open up the new room. J and i trekked to deck 10, and on the opposite side (starboard side) as she remarked, “i had just gotten used to where i was supposed to go!!” ***

(poor gal is always headed in the wrong direction while on the ship )

we obviously couldn’t get the feel for the nighttime noise since it was the middle of the afternoon but decided we would make the switch. we called down the guest services to let them know and they told us someone would meet us at our old cabin to help us make the move.

while J packed up, i consolidated and just started free handing stuff between cabins. pretty sure i clocked at least a mile just going back and forth. the crew member came with the cart to help us bring the suitcases and rest of the stuff and we were finally home in our new cabin!!!!!!

10636 has the benefit of being on the full “bump out” so our balcony was slightly larger and — though we didn’t know it at the time — BLESSEDLY QUIET OF ALL CREAKS, SQUEAKS, MOANS AND GROANS.

it. was. HEAVEN.

because we are so wiped from hauling gear back and forth, and the maya chan excursion, we elect to skip dinner entirely. i headed down to park cafe just before it closed at 5pm to grab 4 tuna (un)melts, and vintages so that J and i could have sailaway champagne with my diamond vouchers.

(my diamond vouchers saved me this trip, even though I couldn’t quite get through all 4 in one day. we are cheap dates. )

we sail away from our blissfully quiet balcony, note that our neighbors on both sides are around but thankfully unobtrusive, and revel in our new digs.

it isn’t long before we realize we have to shower, change, and vacate the room so our new stateroom attendant can turn down for the night and separate the beds. his name is widnyana (but goes by wid - pronounced “weed”) and is so kind, understanding why we have suddenly moved into the cabin and committed to making sure our stay is nothing but peaceful here.

J grabs pizza from sorrentos while i change and we divert to bid farewell to hilario, our former stateroom attendant. we make sure to tip him and thank him profusely for taking care of us. he tells us that he thought we made an emergency disembarking since we left without a trace!

we tell him that if it were up to us, we would have stayed and kept him forever, that he was the best, but that if one more night went by without sleep… there would have been a riot. he says he understands and thanks us. (we find out later that J had left something behind in the former cabin and hilario brought it over to wid to give to us! truly the best!!!)

we grab our uno cards and head down to central park for our nightly ritual of cards and music.

then, it is not long before our second greatest boon of the trip happens!

we meet @WAAAYTOOO and dan!!!!!!

we have a wonderful time and conversation with them, listening to their experiences and exchanging life stories. what a treat!!

it is not long after that we depart back to the cabin to sleep. there is still some of the usual noise, but the tide has turned.

and we finally, at long last — SLEEP.

(pics to follow)

 

[asquared17]

a large lizard friend on the way to maya chan!

welcome guac and salsa as soon as we sat down the flavor of the guac was INCREDIBLE

drink list for the day (spicy paloma on the special board at the bar)

a nice doggo friend (that we were kindly cautioned not to feed) who was eyeing up J's food hungrily

our ship in the far distance!!!

bar menu! spicy paloma! i wished we could have taken more advantage of this but we were still a little sleep deprived.

DELICIOUS chicken tacos with pickled onions and more of the great guac!! they let you choose flour or corn (i prefer corn)

a spicy paloma!!! so yummy

our ship from within the confines of the maze port that is costa maya

THERE SHE IS and she is a BEAUT

perhaps the best pic of all -- the view from our new, QUIET DELIGHTFUL CABIN!!!!

[asquared17]

1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

I don't eat anything but shrimp when it comes to seafood. But I did Hooked on Navigator and that shrimp cocktail was always the best version of it, even over Chops and it's my go-to app there. My table mates got the 2lb lobster and had a time getting all the meat out as well, so kudos.

Also I am jelly, I have yet to have a complete Campfire dessert from Playmakers. I also have to tell my brother about the tuna sandwich because he loves tuna melts and tuna sandwiches.........well tuna in general. 

I am sorry, it sounds like this is your least relaxing cruise. 

 

good news is, it gets better!!!!!!!!

i leaned heavily on the tuna sandwiches to get me through this trip. after the debacle from the jammer on odyssey in december, i became super cautious about what i ate and really preferred the concept of food where other pax couldn't touch the serving utensils, etc. if he likes tuna, i think he will love this. would be curious to know what he thinks!

ps: i did NOT complete the campfire cookie made it halfway through and admitted defeat haha

[Ampurp85]

I am glad things got better. I prefer aft cabins but midship will do in a pinch. 

Did you book the Maya Chan excursion through Royal? I am tempted to do a beach resort because I will be doing these ports on Allure in Oct after just doing these ports but only walking them on Oasis this past January. 

[AshleyDillo]

1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

Did you book the Maya Chan excursion through Royal? I am tempted to do a beach resort because I will be doing these ports on Allure in Oct after just doing these ports but only walking them on Oasis this past January. 

Maya Chan is only bookable directly through their site. They are really good about offering refunds for weather and seaweed conditions. It's just an adventure to get out there but the service is incredible. They have dogs and cats that hang out there too.

[asquared17]

2 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I am glad things got better. I prefer aft cabins but midship will do in a pinch. 

Did you book the Maya Chan excursion through Royal? I am tempted to do a beach resort because I will be doing these ports on Allure in Oct after just doing these ports but only walking them on Oasis this past January. 

aft is our favorite too, i do miss the aft facing standard balconies on some of the older ships. made for great views

like ashley said, we booked through the maya chan website directly; the staff there is incredibly hospitable. they were constantly asking what we wanted to drink and looked sad that we were not knocking them back

well worth the price of admission; i think it was $69 when we booked and that included transport to and from the port also! they are ex-pats, and their whole story is pretty fascinating. you can tell they all work as a family so seamlessly together and are committed to making the guest experience the best it can possibly be. 

the raw beauty of it - with the natural sea grass and color of the ocean reminds me a little bit of labadee. labadee is more pristine in the sense that it’s not as wildly beautiful, but maya chan is incredibly authentic and the food was insanely delicious!

[SweetPea]

Oh my. We did Maya Chan in 2017 and kept in touch with Mark for a bit afterwards (i had booked a group of 45 of my closest friends on that excursion!). He said there were a lot of politics involved in getting the potholes corrected but announced they finally had.

Thank you for your report because i now know that they did not fix them properly. For those of you who haven't @asquared17 is NOT exaggerating in the slightest. You are in a van, traveling over moon craters. We had some hung over people in our crowd and it took them out. Some of my friends joked that they paid a fee to nap on the beach that day. It's an extremely BRUTAL ride. While Maya Chan is indeed lovely, the ride there can take so much out of you, even if you're not prone to motion sickness. 

[asquared17]

11 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Oh my. We did Maya Chan in 2017 and kept in touch with Mark for a bit afterwards (i had booked a group of 45 of my closest friends on that excursion!). He said there were a lot of politics involved in getting the potholes corrected but announced they finally had.

Thank you for your report because i now know that they did not fix them properly. For those of you who haven't @asquared17 is NOT exaggerating in the slightest. You are in a van, traveling over moon craters. We had some hung over people in our crowd and it took them out. Some of my friends joked that they paid a fee to nap on the beach that day. It's an extremely BRUTAL ride. While Maya Chan is indeed lovely, the ride there can take so much out of you, even if you're not prone to motion sickness.

 

i do think they have definitely made some efforts to grade the road -- it wasn't bad all the way through, and the portions closer to maya chan are definitely better. but for sure the first portion once you break away from the paved part are the worst, and then it's just sort of a rustic ride.

i know my motion sickness works against me and honestly it could have been a lot worse -- i think the worst part for me was not knowing how to properly set expectations for the duration of the ride (it's definitely NOT 15-20 minutes) and the sheer NJ driving impatience running through my veins working against me. the views were truly lovely, though and reminded me of how privileged i am, living where and how i do, in the states.

[asquared17]

DAY FIVE

today’s theme: it’s amazing what you can do with a full night’s sleep under your belt!

 

with renewed confidence in both humanity (and our own competence), we decide to get off the ship as we dock in cozumel. typically we would take a taxi down to town shops and visit a few places, including the spice shop. i think we were both looking for a quiet day on the pool deck, so we just got off long enough to stretch our legs and visit the shops across from the port. i grabbed some authentic vanilla as souvenirs and then we went back aboard.

we set up on the pool deck and had the place to ourselves.

… we would later discover that the reason we had it to ourselves is because brilliance of the seas was docked next to us and had thick smoke blowing out of her stacks all. day. long.

and our seats, of course, were directly in line of the smoke.

at lunch, we finally called it quits and moved closer to the slide/solarium end of deck 16, which alleviated a lot of the smoke. it wasn’t super sunny but it wasn’t totally overcast, and there was a strong wind throughout the day that kept us from feeling the heat.

we decided to venture to the jammer for lunch (i typically steer clear after having gotten sick the last time i was in there) and discover the most delicious chicken fingers ever!! i told J and she grabbed some herself, and agreed they were truly the tastiest.

we decide to get ready for dinner even though we didn’t have a formal reservation for CK - it’s cheese tortellini with black truffle sauce — aka MY FAVORITE NIGHT in CK. we decide that if there was any justice in the world, we might be able to squeak in on someone’s cancellation — and lo and behold!!! we were able to!!!!

thus commenced the most amazing dinner and dessert (pics to follow).

if i could eat black truffle sauce ANYTHING for the rest of my life, i could die happy. i would write sonnets about this dish, so strong is my love for it. this is where my true italian shines bright.

nay, our server is delighted that we have returned; we explain last night’s unexpected cancellation because of the room switch and we have a great conversation with him. he tells us a lot about his country and how peaceful it is even though they are technologically behind — we tell him what life is like in jersey and how you can’t judge a book (state) by it’s cover (newark airport).

with full bellies and happy feelings of goodwill toward all (it’s AMAZING what a full night’s sleep will do for you), we venture back to central park for our nightly uno and champagne.

then, ANOTHER wonderful full night of sleep follows!!

 

[asquared17]

our beautiful beast of a ship next to brilliance (the dink dink - a "technical term" )

our original seats and the endless smoke from brilliance

ships in port at cozumel closer to the town shops -- we've never docked there but i've always wanted to one of the celebrity ships and maybe an MSC?

COASTAL KITCHEN MENU WITH ALL MY FAVES

our view from our table within CK

delicious crab cake appetizer (mine slid a bit across the plate)

CHEESE TORTELLINI WITH BLACK TRUFFLE BUTTER BE STILL MY HEART

carnival after she turned around and was getting ready to depart alongside us

clearly, i did not hate this dinner.

vacherin; the meringue (white rectangular part) dessert with vanilla and elderberry ice cream

[WAAAYTOOO]

It is really nice to see that you were able to get CK dinner reservations nearly any time you wanted them.  I have never tried to get into the CK when staying in a JS (actually, now that I think about it, I have never stayed in a JS on an O class ship !  LOL).  

[SweetPea]

Ha! NJ born and bred here too. Does it drive you crazy also when people insist on pronouncing it Joisey? That is like nails on a chalkboard to me, because no fellow New Jerseyean pronounces it that way. Ever.

That soot was too much.  Glad you were able to find shelter and finally get a good night's sleep!

[asquared17]

42 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

Ha! NJ born and bred here too. Does it drive you crazy also when people insist on pronouncing it Joisey? That is like nails on a chalkboard to me, because no fellow New Jerseyean pronounces it that way. Ever.

That soot was too much.  Glad you were able to find shelter and finally get a good night's sleep!

hello fellow NJ friend!!  YES WHERE DID THAT MISPRONUNCIATION EVEN COME FROM?!

i feel like i take great pains to make it sound like i have a generic east coast accent but not a "jersey" accent, if that makes sense

the soot was crazy. i kept waiting for it to stop, and i think what made it worse was that the direction of the wind was directly in our path definitely better once we moved back a bit. the wind never did let up though...

2 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

It is really nice to see that you were able to get CK dinner reservations nearly any time you wanted them.  I have never tried to get into the CK when staying in a JS (actually, now that I think about it, I have never stayed in a JS on an O class ship !  LOL).  

we really had a great experience with CK; i can't say enough how wonderful the staff was. there was a night or two we couldn't go/they couldn't make it work, and we understood that too. i think it helps that we were just a small party and were able to scoot in early and dine quickly. there were a LOT of pinnacles and families with small children on this sailing that also wanted in to CK as well so it's really just the luck of the draw.

[asquared17]

DAY 6

we are at sea today; it’s giving intense last day vibes — we are used to the wind being relentless (and it is) as we park ourselves in the loungers directly in front of the see through portion of the toilet bowl (see though waterslide). we get splashes from the slide, often remarking, ‘refreshing!’ and soak up all the sun all day long.

all things considered, it is a great day at sea. my towel works well to keep me dry and comfortable (i will link it again at the end of this recap along with some other things that were superstars on the trip).

i put on my favorite dress that i save strictly for vacation, and we even venture to take some pictures (we usually don't) throughout the ship to kill some time before heading up to deck 17, where we beg our way back into CK. once there, we are told that there is pretty much no way we can get in since it is formal night and they are booked. (which we understand) we offer to wait to see if anyone will cancel and we can take their reservation and wait for about 30 mins before we are forced to admit defeat. on our way out the door, alain, the maitre'd, catches sight of us and gets us in!! we are seated with a different server by the name of ali, who was also very kind and attentive. alain, the maitre’d personally helps us make arrangements so that we can be seated for the evening and for the following evening well, and we are very grateful. (and express our gratitude with some $$)

it is also lobster night in CK, which adds to the limited seating — and we are able to combine the lobster with the gnocchi entree into one dish. ITS INCREDIBLE, 15/10 would recommend!!! (pics to follow)

we go back to central park to play cards and are awarded our second delight of the evening! @WAAAYTOOO and dan are back!!

we keep them for over an hour talking, feeling like we’re with family before we finally admit we are falling asleep at the table and must retire for the evening.
(i think it wasn’t even 9pm at this point but we are are lightweights.)

pics to follow!

 

[asquared17]

the wind was so strong the night before that it unlocked the balcony divider! (thankfully, we didn't hear anything )

our seats for the day and my 4 towel clips doing their job!!

sunrise and a fellow ship in the distance! (i later found out it was a norwegian ship)

central park before the madness ensued

my beloved koozie (that i later lost as it must have blown away in the wind!) worked great though while it lasted!

the best chicken tenders at sea!

LOBSTER + GNOCCHI COMBINED!!!

DELICIOUS.

baked alaska dessert! (i was underwhelmed, but i am not a good estimator of desserts, honestly because i'd rather have pasta)

you guessed it, uno + champagne in central park!!

my last duck that a kid came up and asked for right off our table i happily gave it away and heard him telling his family about it (at least that is what i am assuming he mentioned when i heard "senorita" etc.

my favorite dress!! (it certainly made things interesting when things got breezy in central park for pictures on the little walking bridge near the trellis bar )

[Ampurp85]

You dress is pretty, I have no "popular" fashion sense though, so take my compliment with a grain of salt. 

Do you and your travel companion always vacation together? Will she join you on your other cruises? I am really wondering if the lack of sleep and all that hubbub deterred her in any way. 

[Yesiamthere6]

Love your writing style, so entertaining to read!

[asquared17]

23 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

You dress is pretty, I have no "popular" fashion sense though, so take my compliment with a grain of salt. 

Do you and your travel companion always vacation together? Will she join you on your other cruises? I am really wondering if the lack of sleep and all that hubbub deterred her in any way. 

thank you!! i had a couple other dresses that i liked too (i worked in retail for a long time, so i am drawn to bright colors and clean lines) but this was the most daring/fun of the bunch -- so i appreciate this compliment!!

J and i are cruise buddies; she puts up with my type A personality very well and i plan the shiz out of everything. she did suffer from the lack of sleep as well; she said i'd pass out like the dead once i was down and then not move even to roll over unless the noise was really bad. to be fair, i also take some magnesium before bed as well as the olly sleep gummies with melatonin, so my first couple hours down are truly down for the count... UNLESS we are on deck 11 with the rave in fact, she was the one who would hear the bros rolling in at 2am every morning. thankfully once we moved, she was able to sleep too, so that was good.

we are currently planned for harmony at the end of april/beginning week of may and also oasis in december and have a really nice routine down. i am very grateful she travels with me

also i am always cackling at your use of gifs. top tier, every single time!!

22 minutes ago, Yesiamthere6 said:

Love your writing style, so entertaining to read!

thank you!! i used to love writing years ago and seem to have had all my inspiration dry up once covid hit. this means more to me than you will know

[Xaa]

1 hour ago, Yesiamthere6 said:

Love your writing style, so entertaining to read!

I'll second this.  You said it was like a novel and that's what I liked.  At times I felt like I was reading a chapter in a novel with setting and character development.  I think there's one more day.  Can't wait to read it.  Thanks for taking the time.

[asquared17]

28 minutes ago, Xaa said:

I'll second this.  You said it was like a novel and that's what I liked.  At times I felt like I was reading a chapter in a novel with setting and character development.  I think there's one more day.  Can't wait to read it.  Thanks for taking the time.

oh my gosh, thank you so much!! i think i have cobbled enough together for day 8 too, and am working through some final impressions/pro con list for anyone who would like to read them

everyone here is so great and supportive, i just try to hopefully include the relevant details that are important/i would want to know about when cruising too

[asquared17]

DAY 7

another full night’s sleep!

we had booked the cococay beach club on the black friday sale and were eager to try it out. i wasn’t sure if we could traverse there on foot, despite looking at the map, so we opted to take the tram. they definitely fill every seat on the tram, which made me a little uneasy but everyone was very friendly and respectful, which i really appreciated. (especially after fleeing our former home on deck 11 where it felt like a complete amnesty of human respect )

mariner was in port with us as well, and even though we departed around 8:10am, by the time we arrived off the tram, all the complimentary beds by the pool were taken. this wound up not being too much of an issue for us, as we were happy to spend time on the beach instead (quieter is more our speed) and we were blessed with beautiful views and weather. there is a cute little stand where they serve and make your coffee, and have some pastries for you to enjoy. they also had the apple pastries that i loved (and had been weirdly out for a few days on board) and the light hits the pastry cabinet in a way that your treats are slightly warm and melty when you enjoy them.

J got set up and i went into the water almost immediately. people always ask how the temps are for the ocean — we are used to swimming in the atlantic throughout the various stages of summer, so any time in the caribbean always feels warm to us. while i’m not entirely sure of the temp, i can tell you that it felt perfect to me and was absolutely stunning.

i was able to watch a lot of minnows and one needlenosed fish (who visited several times throughout the day) darting by. in fact, i was just standing there, peacefully enjoying the calm and minding my own business, when a shark swam by my legs.

let me repeat: a shark. swam. by. my. legs.

I FROZE.

and, in my best statue impression, watched the brown nurse shark swim on, completely unbothered by me and my slight (!!!) concern. no more than ten seconds later, the lifeguard walked by on shore and told me that i was lucky to see the shark because they usually didn’t come this close to shore (!)

me:
lifeguard: no worries though! it was a friendly shark!!
me: [to myself] a friendly… shark.
also me: [quietly mumbling under my breath] what the EFF

 

also discovered some nice shells that i wanted to inspect closer when sitting at my seat, only to feel a little tickling on my palm — i looked down and saw little friends crawling around in the shells! i set them free to live their best life. (video to follow)

we’d made our lunch arrangements for 12pm. in hindsight, i think i would have made them for 11am (given that we had gotten there at 8:30 and didn’t really eat a substantial breakfast while onboard) and also expressed my preference to sit in the actual restaurant instead of the umbrella covered patio.

while we were shaded, there was still intense sun beating down and i get — you guessed it — a little ~weird in the heat. it took me a while to eat lunch because i was really feeling it at that point. J got the burger and i ordered the lobster sandwich. our server’s name was charles, and he was GREAT!!

i’d asked charles what was better, the grilled lobster or the lobster sandwich — at which point, J gave me a skeptical look and said, ‘haven’t you had ENOUGH lobster at this point??’ — and he said he was going to hook me up. cue my slight fear that i would be wasting food because there was no way i could eat an entire lobster AND the sandwich and fries.

we also were greeted with a bento box of the full appetizer selection. again, i think we would have done much better if we’d been in a more climate controlled section and had not waited so long to eat. i think we disappointed the staff a bit that we couldn’t put away food the way they were used to seeing.

J ordered the brownie for dessert and said it was excellent. i got the sorbet and it was a nice cooling off treat.

knowing my hunger would resurface with a vengeance once i got over/past the heat, i managed to pack some of my truffle fries into a small cup and cover with a napkin so that the aggressive seagulls did not eat them (one of those effers had taken my apple pastry!! i had it out for them). they were the perfect post-swim snack.

kind of a weird thing to note but, we’re all friends here, so here we go — the bathrooms are among some of the nicest on the island; they are PUMPING out AC and are pleasantly cool and tranquil — hands down, easily one of the best features of the beach club (sounds silly but true).

the entire overall beach club vibe was just easy breezy comfortable. it was well worth the BF sale and when we looked right to how crowded south beach was, we were very grateful indeed that we had also snagged passes for the club for our sailing on harmony in may.

i think PDCC may be one of my favorite stops — tied with st. maarten and the holland house for me — we love a beach front lounger with an umbrella. give us front row and we are happy ladies, and the beach club delivered this in spades. it was probably the most peaceful time we had the entire trip. (not including our quiet day in dazzles.)

i will have some good pics to share in the following post

all too soon it was time to leave, and we were feeling a bit sad about it, since it had been SUCH a great day.

even though we had taken the tram in the morning, waiting around to hit all the stops on the way back didn’t really appeal, so like a good sport, J agreed to hoof it back on foot with me. it is very nearly a straight line from the entrance to the coco cay beach club to the center of the pier (with very few twists and turns) and i walk at the pace of a native new yorker — probably no more than 6 or 7 minutes to where the band was playing in total.

of course, we made the rookie move of picking the SLOWER line (cue my NJ impatience YET again) and stood there forlornly, watching the returning guests to our right move along at a fast pace.

J wondered if we may actually leave on time from PDCC since we’ve been so late every single day and i seize the opportunity to divert to park cafe to grab my sailaway tuna (un)melt sandwiches and a glass of chandon from vintages for sailaway.  

we do leave (relatively) on time — at least, more on time than all ports previously — but i suspect that is because they can pretty much completely control the shutting down of events and venues on the island in a way that they can’t elsewhere.

we bid PDCC a fond goodbye and are cheered that we’ll be going back in may!

i have to say — there is something about the water and the way the sun catches the light when you pull into port here. our sailing in may, we are in a CP balcony, so we’ll miss that morning light moment and ocean view departure, which is a bit of a bummer. i’m still happy we’re able to go back though and am glad that it has been such a great stop each time we’ve gone. a real treat!

alain got us in at CK for our last dinner and as the menu was not giving me any real thrills, the chef obliged me with a custom gnocchi dish and alfredo sauce. it was GREAT. (as you have no doubt gathered by now, i am a good Italian and love my pasta )

instead of getting depressed and returning to the room to pack up, we went back to central park to play uno. i used my 50% off coupon for a glass of veuve, and we played three rounds of cards.

we then ventured to cafe promenade to get a cup for my departing cold brew in the morning and also picture this to get my diamond free picture. unfortunately, one of the snafus of the room change was that none of our pictures could be found. thankfully one of the picture this staff were able to take down our two cabin numbers and said to come back in an hour to see if the pictures could be located. we even went on ‘photo finder’ and couldn’t find ourselves.

so i set my timer for an hour and knuckled down to pack

why is packing always the saddest part of the cruise? and also… how did i manage to pack so much stuff??? thankfully, i had the ziploc bags to shrink/vacuum seal my clothes once i had separated them into two bags (cold water and warm water wash) which worked out nicely.

when the hour was up, we split — J to return her towel before 9pm, and me to get the pictures. lo and behold, they were there when we scanned our sea pass this time! however, i had forgotten the cardinal rule of how long it takes to print/receive — especially on the FINAL night.

with dawning horror in my eyes at the 11:30pm pickup time, i turned to the staff, who immediately reassured me that i could get them the next morning beginning at 7am. while i didn’t love waiting until then, i certainly wasn’t going to skip sleep to retrieve the photos   and bid them goodnight.

we closed our eyes for the last sleep aboard and hoped that tomorrow’s disembarkation would not be too painful.

[asquared17]

 

my favorite shot; these colors are unreal

the other side of the sunrise shot - PDCC!! we're coming for ya!!

here we goooooo! (sorry to these people who wound up getting in the shot as i turned around without warning to snap a quick shot)

YOU CANT BEAT IT, FAM

that water tho

WHAT A STUNNER OF A DAY

my little friends!!

bento box with tapas as we sat down for our lunch

the shrimp cocktail was EXCELLENT.

sadly, we did not eat the cerviche. i didn't want to risk it, given that we were meant to be flying within the next 24 hours...

 

both lobster dishes (just in case you wanted to see what they look like)

my other spare koozie

(*fun fact; there weren't many people in the overwater cabanas but the ones in the background of this shot were SO LOUD -- i'm wondering if they were perhaps our former neighbors...)

that afternoon light though... this was the view from our front row seat, truly the best

the birds were something out of a hitchcock movie tbh

the long (sad) walk back to the ship

sailaway sandwiches!

and champagne!

final night CK dinner

J's gnocchi appetizer

the alfredo-esque gnocchi dish!

close up

i had to leave some men behind... i felt like a failure

this was my "ivory mousse" dessert... tasted like a napoleon though. it was supposed to have some kind of peppermint ice cream but they told me they were out and that it was pistachio ice cream instead. pretty sure it was a combo; pistachio peppermint

mario! (on deck 11, i believe)

our (relatively) on-time departure from cococay.... that happy patch of blue sky up above seemed fitting

[jbrinkm]

What a lovely montage of vacation photos at the end! Absolutely beautiful!!

[SweetPea]

Appreciated the bathroom review  

[Ampurp85]

I will agree that the bathrooms for the Beach Club are pretty nice. But I was not at all a fan of the food. The birds at PDCC are something else, they will snatch any and all foods.

It is also great that you can count on your friend to travel with you. My brother has committed to being my new cruise buddy, so I am excited about that. 

[asquared17]

6 hours ago, jbrinkm said:

What a lovely montage of vacation photos at the end! Absolutely beautiful!!

thank you!! it really was the jewel of the trip

4 hours ago, SweetPea said:

Appreciated the bathroom review  

we are HERE for the REAL DEAL!!! seriously though, it's important!!

4 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I will agree that the bathrooms for the Beach Club are pretty nice. But I was not at all a fan of the food. The birds at PDCC are something else, they will snatch any and all foods.

It is also great that you can count on your friend to travel with you. My brother has committed to being my new cruise buddy, so I am excited about that. 

to be honest, i am not sure what i will get when we go back. the lobster sandwich was okay but i would have been much happier with a fish taco or fish and chips. and i felt weird about being underwhelmed by the food but i am glad that i wasn't the only one!

i remember your brother joining you on the last cruise and thinking how nice it was that he was teaming up for cruises with you. if i had a sibling, i would hope they would want to hang with me. my parents like cruising too and we used to go away a lot as a family, but my mom's tastes are far too bougie for me and she doesn't want to go on the big ships anymore. it's good when we can find people to travel with easier said than done, though!

[asquared17]

for some reason, the beach club menu didn’t upload in the above grouping. i’m sure everyone has seen it by now, but i wanted to include it just in case. 

i guess i would try the grilled grouper next time  or maybe the caesar salad with shrimp. 

the fries were okay — not overly tasting of truffle but still tasty.  but i have a bone to pick with the fries onboard these days. they seem more bite sized/smaller than ever before. has anyone else noticed this? 

i find myself grabbing more than usual to make up for it. 

[asquared17]

DAY 8

in a shock to no one, i did not sleep that well. to be fair, i typically don’t sleep well on travel days (anyone else like this??) so i wasn’t entirely surprised. we always opt for self-assist, so we can keep eyes on our bags at all times. we’d had a scare a few years ago where our bags were no where to be found and i vowed never again after that.

getting an elevator a little bit after 7 was a nightmare. we were also on the side of the suite lounge, and maybe would have fared better if we’d crossed port side, to where CK was. in hindsight, i almost wished we had gone forward and taken the elevators down, especially after we were forced out onto the running track on five and then had to loop around the wrong way to walk off.

thankfully, the line moved quickly and we were off in no time.

one of the best things (at least, to me) about the port of miami is the straight across walk off vs the zig zag, climb every mountain portion of port everglades/fort lauderdale. fort lauderdale is definitely smaller/easier to navigate on the customs end of things, and both had the biometric recognition — so no need to have your passport out. there were also no customs officers that we encountered on our way out, just friendly staff and then all too soon, you are out the last door!

i ordered an uber X (because cramming in with our luggage into a tiny car was decidedly unappealing — we did that on our way from miami to the intercontinental when we’d flown in the friday before) and it arrived in less than a minute. our uber driver got us to the airport lickety split.

miami airport to me is like permanently stuck in the 80’s. i keep expecting rick astley to pop out from behind a column to start belting out ‘never gonna GIVE you up!’ there is carpet everywhere (who enjoys dragging their wheeled luggage along carpet in an airport terminal????) and some really outdated looking decor.

the bathroom stall doors are literally hanging SIDEWAYS (rip privacy!) so you basically just go quickly and think of england and get the heck out of there. (i am nothing if not candid about bathroom accommodations, friends )

our flight was at 11am and we were due to board at 10:30am, however our incoming plane was delayed and needed maintenance, so we didn’t board until after 11 and i don’t think we left until closer to 12. it was kind of wild.

i sat next to a wheezing man who never covered his mouth every time he wet-coughed (approximately every 4.7 seconds) — i mentally referred to him as ‘typhoid joe,’ and prayed that the mask i had on would keep me relatively germ free.

we landed in newark and were pleased to have gotten our bags almost right away. upon getting home, i noticed that one of the ‘feet’ on the bottom of my away suitcase had come loose and was just spinning around wildly.

away has a lifetime warranty on all their suitcases, but i wasn’t sure if mine was considered cosmetic or covered damage. i filled out a claim the next day (sunday), thinking it would be a few days before i heard back. within an hour, i received a notice that they were shipping me a brand new suitcase!!!

BLESS AWAY LUGGAGE.

one last post after this for pros/cons and final observations!